A LEADING French politician has raged Corsica “is and will always be French” amid growing demands for greater autonomy for the French Mediterranean island by ruling nationalists.

Conservative opposition party leader Laurent Wauquiez’s comments come after Corsican leaders said they wanted their language to be officially recognised, as well as for jailed militants to be returned home and for foreigners to be banned from buying holiday homes on the island.

Mr Wauqiez said: “There is a red line that cannot be crossed: Corsica is and will always be French…

“We’ve seen what happened in Catalonia, and so we know full well that the issue [of greater autonomy] is one we need to follow closely.”

Speaking to the French public television channel France 2, the head of the centre-right The Republicans party, added: “This means that there is no such thing as a Corsican citizenship and that the Corsican language cannot be put on equal footing with the French language.

Paul Gordon is the publisher and editor of iState.TV. He has published and edited newspapers, poetry magazines and online weekly magazines.
He is the director of Social Cognito, an SEO/Web Marketing Company. You can reach Paul at pg@istate.tv